Botanica Project at We*Do Gallery

New textures. New materials. New works of art and design produced by plastics. We*Do Gallery announced their new exhibition, «Botanica Project», with the Design Duo Formafantasma.

Andrea Trimarchi & Simone Farresin’s work explores the role of design in folk craft, the relationship between tradition and local culture, critical approaches to sustainability and the significance of objects as cultural conduits. Botanica Project is their personal homage to plastic materials by investigating the history of polymers.

Andrea Trimarchi and Simone Farresin are Studio Formafantasma – two Italian designers based in Eindhoven, The Netherlands.

We*Do Gallery Exhibition: The Botanica Project.

Botanica Project was commissioned by Plart , an Italian foundation dedicated to scientific research and technological innovation in the recovery, restoration and conservation of works of art and design produced in plastic. Andrea & Simone discovered unexpected textures, feelings and technical possibilities offered by natural polymers extracted from plants or animal-derivatives. The designers experimented with making plastic from natural resins, rubbers, shellac, wood and animal products. Such as, Rosin, Dammar, Copal (a sub-fossil state of amber), Natural Rubber, Shellac (a polymer extracted from insect excrement that colonize trees) and Bois Durci (a 19th century material composed of wood dust and animal blood).

The natural textures and honey-like colours of the resins evoke the memory of 20th century bakelite objects, however, the finish and details are somewhat archaic yet contemporary.